Navy investigating charges against Plymouth sailor

Terry E. Gappa, 20, of Plymouth, was arrested along with a fellow sailor Memorial Day after they allegedly carjacked a cab and set it on fire near Chicago.

Allison Manning

Terry E. Gappa, 20, son of former livery service owners, was arrested with a fellow sailor outside Chicago on Memorial Day, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said.

Gappa and Aaron Couch, 21, of Monroe, La., hailed a cab near Chicago’s Union Station just after 9 p.m. Monday and asked the driver to take them back to their naval base, police said.

They then threatened to kill the cab driver and took the vehicle over before stopping at a store to buy beer, police said. The driver told police the sailors appeared drunk.

After the driver jumped out and escaped, the pair set the cab on fire, Sheriff Mark Curran said.

“It’s unfortunate that this happens on Memorial Day when we’re honoring our military ... that they would bring discredit to the U.S. Navy,” Curran said.

Couch and Gappa both face felony charges, including theft of services, criminal damage of property, vehicle theft and assault.

A judge released the pair on $50,000 bond Tuesday.

They are restricted to the base at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, public affairs officer Matt Mogle said. The Navy is conducting its own investigation into the charges, which Mogle said the Navy takes “very seriously.”

Gappa’s parents, Karen and Bradley, who live on Alden Street, formerly owned Central Transportation, a livery service the town claimed was acting as a taxi service. The Gappas’ vehicle-for-hire license was revoked in November 2005 after five violations in less than two years.

Reached at his workplace, Cape Auto Body on Samoset Street, Bradley Gappa declined to comment on his son’s arrest. No one answered the phone at the Gappas’ house Wednesday.

Terry Gappa graduated from Plymouth North High School in 2005. On his MySpace page, he wrote that he finished boot camp April 4, and is “stuck in Illinois for a couple months” until June, while he studies to become a sonar technician. He expected to be sent to San Diego for more training.

Mogle said Gappa, a seaman recruit, was in Illinois for “apprentice technical training,” a prerequisite for advanced technical fields.

Couch and Gappa are scheduled to appear in court June 19 for a preliminary hearing.